Chris Varlow
When did you get involved in Dartmouth’s Christmas celebrations?
For five years we have sponsored and organised the provision of the big Christmas tree that stands beside the fountain in the centre of Dartmouth, in conjunction with Dartmouth Town Council.
We’re familiar with Blue Peter’s annual coverage of the arrival of Trafalgar Square’s Christmas tree from Norway. Does the Dartmouth tree have a similar journey?
Well, like the London tree ours is a Norway spruce, but a little smaller at 30ft. It grows on the edge of Dartmoor and will be at least 30 years old – they grow about a foot a year. We go out there to inspect the trees and check their progress through the year and have two or three possibles marked out for each of the next few years.
How do you choose the tree that will stand at the heart of Dartmouth’s Christmas celebrations?
We look for something that is symmetrical – that’s the main thing. It also has to be nice and heavy and full because it has to take some pretty hefty Christmas lights – it has to be pretty chunky.
How long does it take to get here?
The tree is always cut on the day of delivery. I go out to help cut the tree down and drag it out of the field with a tractor. Then we winch it on to a big trailer, lash it down and off we go keeping our fingers crossed all the way that we don’t break it. It is a perilous journey – even the main roads to Dartmouth are quite twisty and precarious.
What happens next?
When we get to the town centre we roll it off the trailer and it lies like a beached whale in the road. Then we rope in as many passers by as possible to help position the tree and lend a hand. We usually find people drop their shopping and dash over to pitch in. The tree stands in a big hole in the ground and is chocked into place – it’s quite a task to make sure it doesn’t move or lean!
Is Christmas a busy time for you?
Everyone here loves Christmas because it is calm compared to the rest of the year – all we have to do is sell Christmas trees and we play carols, dress up, serve chestnuts, mince pies and mulled wine, and generally have a good time helping the customers choose the perfect tree. It’s a tremendous potential source of family arguments and I have sent couples to the restaurant for time out and a coffee on the house because they have been arguing so badly over which tree to choose. We sell more than 1,300 trees a year – when we started six years ago it was 200.
Do you have any other Christmas projects on the go?
For the first time this year we had a Christmas craft fair to raise money for the Dartmouth Rotary Shelter Box, and we sponsor the Christmas tree festival at Stoke Fleming Parish Church which is beautiful – a tree on the end of every pew and all of them decorated by different local groups and businesses. It gets terribly competitive with all of us trying to out-do each other. Our theme this year is sweets and our tree will be absolutely covered in them.
Do you have any Christmas wishes?
I must wish a special thankyou to Matthew Perkins. He does all our Christmas displays, helps with the delivery of the big tree and delivers 400-500 Christmas trees to our customers as far away as Brixham, Kingsbridge, Totnes and Paignton. He has a big van and will be flying around to make sure everyone gets their tree in time. We couldn’t do Christmas without him!
How do you celebrate Christmas? Or are you sick of it by the time it arrives?
I love Chrismas! We have a great time at work in the run up to Christmas, but when we finish work on Christmas Eve my wife Philippa and I jump in the car and head home to Mousehole in Cornwall where I grew up. We have a lovely family Christmas there. Mousehole is beautiful at Christmas with lights all around the harbour made from children’s coloured buckets and its own Christmas legends and traditions.
First Published December 2009 By The Dart